Half Brother
by PlatformNineAndThreeQuarters
Summary: Uchiha Shisui decides to take a paternity test and ultimately changes the course of history.
1. Paternity Test

Shisui laid on the ground beside Itachi, after gracefully admitting defeat to him in their spar. He turned his head to see Itachi looking at him with a contemplative expression, chewing his lower lip.

Shisui removed his gaze from Itachi's lips with considerable effort and raised an eyebrow at him. In response, Itachi moved his head closer and leaned on for a kiss and Shisui's head automatically compiled. His lips were just about to touch Itachi's when a terrible thought struck him.

"We could be half brothers." he blurted out.

"What." Itachi deadpanned.

"I'm sorry. I really like you, Itachi. But I don't know who my father is. Kaa-chan never told me and she and Fugaku-sama were close. It might be possible that we are half Brothers, and I don't know what to..."

"Shisui. Just shut up. Father wouldn't have..." Itachi interrupted him. Then taking a deep breath, he continued. "Just go to the hospital. Get a paternity test. And come and see me when you get the results. After, not before. Understood?" he said, decidedly pissed off, although he sounded polite. But Itachi was always polite, no matter how he felt and Shisui knew him well enough to decipher his moods.

Shisui just nodded and shunshined to the ANBU section of the hospital, where he reluctantly submitted his blood. He knew he could easily have found out about his father from simple paternity test but always avoided it. He had wanted to live under the delusion that the Yondaime was his father. He was on the same genin team as Shisui's mother and they were good friends. And as a speed based Shinobi, the Yondaime was Shisui's idol. He didn't want to be disappointed by whoever was his father, as he knew it was impossible for anyone to beat the Yondaime.

Shisui paced in the hallway while waiting for the results. Soon enough, Owl was handing him an envelope, which he promptly tore to look at his father's name.

The paper dropped out of his hands as he saw it.

"Is this a joke?" he asked, faintly.

"No. Its not an error either. I redid the test three times." Owl replied. "This information will be classified, of course, unless you wish to tell anyone."

Shisui nodded dumbly, before picking up the paper, which proudly displayed the results of his paternity test.

 _Test Subject : Uchiha Shisui_

 _Maternal DNA: Uchiha Kiyomi_

 _Paternal DNA: Namikaze Minato_


	2. I Have A Little Brother

Itachi walked over to cliff overseeing the Naka river, from where he had felt Shisui's chakra. He was sitting there with his feet dangling.

"So, am I your half brother?" he asked, knowing full well that he wasn't. He didn't understand how Shisui could believe something so ridiculous.

Shisui didn't answer but passed him a paper, presumably the results of his paternity test. Itachi unfolded it to that Shisui's father was none other than Namikaze Minato. His thoughts immediately went to the boisterous child he frequently gaurded as ANBU Karasu.

"Naruto-kun." he murmured.

"Oh shit. I didn't even think about him. Itachi, I have a little brother." Shisui exclaimed, standing up and facing Itachi. "What kind of brother I am? I forgot about him."

"It's understandable. You had quite a bit of a shock." Itachi allowed. He knew that despite all of Shisui's fantasies of the Yondaime being his father, he had never taken the theory seriously, and had believed his mother when she had told him that the Yondaime would never cheat on his wife.

Turned out Uchiha Kiyomi was a true Shinobi till the end, using the art of misdirection with such skill. Uzumaki Kushina was not Namikaze-san's wife around the time Shisui would have been conceived, was she?

Shisui was apparently was excited to have family after so long, despite its origin.

"He lives alone, doesn't he? Do you think he'll like living with me? I'll have to clean up, of course..."

As much as he hated bursting Shisui's bubble, Itachi interrupted him, "You'll never get his custody Shisui. Especially not with the rumors of the coup." The definite proof of the coup that Itachi was personally supplying to the Sandaime, but Shisui didn't need to know that.

Shisui deflated at that. "There has to be a way. He's my family, Itachi, and he's all alone." Just like I was, was not said but heavily implied. He gained a contemplative expression. "What if I left the clan?"

Itachi was careful to not let his hurt show, but Shisui knew him better than anyone else. "Don't look like that, Itachi. I know you don't have a high opinion of clan, either. Besides if I left maybe they'd reconsider or atleast delay the coup. They are considering me a centerpiece in most of their plans."

Shisui was not leaving him, Itachi told himself, he was just leaving the clan. Besides, Naruto-kun needed him. It had somehow leaked among the populace that he would be joining the ninja academy soon and the scorn against him had increase multiple folds. Itachi did what he could for him, but it wasn't enough. He needed a family, that Shisui was ready to give.

Shisui was also right about the effects of his leaving on the coup plans. If nothing else, it would give the Hokage some time to come up to solution.

He hesitantly nodded.

Shisui gave him a beaming smile. "Thanks, Itachi. Love you." he casually said, giving him a quick peck on the lips and leaving with a shunshin.


	3. The Sandaime's Dilemma

Hiruzen Sarutobi, Sandaime Hokage of Konoha, wanted to bang his head against the table. One of his capable jonin, Uchiha Shisui had just presented him with a request to gain Naruto's custody and a blood test proving him to be the son of Namikaze Minato.

Even without the Uchiha coup in motion, this would be a political nightmare. With the Uchiha coup...he shuddered to think of the repercussions.

However, he couldn't think of any reasons to give the boy for the refusal of his request. He was a loyal Konoha ninja and was firmly against the coup. He wasn't in any obvious way related to Minato, despite being his son (How could Hiruzen have not seen that before?), so he couldn't give the reason he had given Jiraiya and Kakashi. He was even ready to leave his clan, so the generic excuse of jinchiruchi not being adopted by a clan, was rendered mute.

Hiruzen knew that he could refuse the boy without giving any reason and he would have to accept it, but strangely he didn't want to do so. Because now that he knew, he could see bits of Minato in the boy. With the determination in his eyes, his cheerful smiles and the Will of Fire in his heart, he had Minato's traits, if not his coloring.

Secondly, he was tired of denying Minato's second son the love of family, again and again. The various clan heads, Jiraiya, Kakashi, all had been denied and little Naruto-kun had grown up alone and unloved in the village that hated him.

Hiruzen lit his pipe and smoked his tobacco for a few minutes, contemplating at what to do. He looked at the young ninja's face, at his hopeful expression, the same expression Naruto would have worn if he had known about this, and Hiruzen felt his resolve crumble. They were family. They deserved to be together.

He had always played the safe game, with signing the treaty with Iwa to end the war, sacrificing Hizashi to avoid the war with Kumo; perhaps it was time he took some risks.

He beckoned Shisui to bring his form closer, and when he did so, Hiruzen signed it, to the surprise of the young ninja.

"You are appointed his guardian, but no one can know of your relation, not even him. As far as the village is concerned, I appointed you as his caretaker." he warned.

Shisui nodded enthusiastically, then abruptly stopped. "Hokage-sama, I've kinda already told Itachi." he admitted sheepishly.

The Hokage sighed. "Very well, tell him to not spread it any further. Dismissed."

"Hai, Hokage-sama. Arigatou." he left with a seal less shunshin.

Hiruzen looked at the face of his successor at the Hokage mountain and hoped that this act would grant him atleast some measure of forgiveness.


	4. Naruto's Guardian

Naruto was making instant ramen for himself, when someone knocked on his apartment door. Thinking it to be that idiot landlord, he prepared himself to shout at him that it wasn't the time for rent yet, dattebayo, but was surprised to see a teenager with a headband, grinning at him, as he opened the door.

"Who are you?" he asked, warily, because he didn't have good experience with people knocking on his door, unless it was jiji.

The suspicion did nothing to dampen the ninja's enthusiasm as he replied, "My name is Uchiha Shisui. We'll be living together from now on. Hokage-sama's order."

So jiji had found another caretaker for him, and this one would be living with him. Naruto hesitantly glanced around his apartment. It wasn't exactly the most spacious and one. Still, this one showed more enthusiasm than all the other caretakers combined. The least Naruto could do was show some hospitality.

"All right. You can take the bed. I'll sleep on the couch." Seeing that there was no way that the taller teenager could comfortably fit on the couch, this was the only option. "Would you like some cup ramen?" he remembered to ask. It was his last packet, but Naruto didn't have many people who would smile at him.

Shisui looked at him oddly, with a soft gaze. "That's very kind of you, Naruto-kun. But my apartment is a lot bigger, we should get you moved there."

Naruto turned to look at him suspiciously. "All right. What do you want? Nobody is that nice to me, you're overdoing it."

Shisui's eyes turned red at that and it looked like he was physically restraining himself from violence. Naruto, who had learned about self preservation early on, took an instinctive step back.

That seemed to get Shisui out of his state and he looked apologetically at Naruto, his eyes back to black. "I'm so sorry, Naruto-kun. I didn't mean to scare you. I was just angry at those... It's our first meeting and I'm already screwing this up, ain't I?" he put his hand on his forehead. "I always thought that it was easy when Itachi did it."

"It's all right." Naruto tried to comfort him. "The other caretakers were a lot worse than you."

Judging by his frown, that didn't comfort him at all. "I'm not just your caretaker, Naruto. I'm your guardian. Look." he showed Naruto a paper which had a lot of kanji which he didn't understand. "This has Sandaime-sama's signature saying so. We're family now."

"Family?" Naruto asked, hopefully.

Shisui knelt down in front of him and gave him a soft smile. "Hai. I don't really have a lot of experience with it, but I'll try my best if you give me a chance." He opened his arms like Naruto had seen many parents doing before giving them a hug.

Naruto, for once, let go of all his wariness and suspicions, and dove in for the hug, which was returned by Shisui.

Naruto was not crying. There was just something in his eye.


	5. Orange Overload

Shisui quickly learned that being Naruto's gaurdian was not going to be as easygoing as he expected.

Naruto was an orange ball of sunshine and energy. He survived on ramen and pranks. He couldn't keep still for more than two minutes and hated baths like a cat. Shisui tried to help him with his academy work until he realised that Naruto didn't even know the basic hirangana letters.

He tried his best and even followed all those civilian parenting books, encouraging good behaviour and gently rebuking mischief. It didn't seem to have any effect on Naruto.

Just because he was a damn good jonin didn't automatically make him competent at everything, including taking care of a child.

"You're brooding." Itachi interrupted his perfectly logical thought process (which wasn't brooding) in the ANBU dining hall. Thankfully, the hall was empty except them and nobody was there to hear Itachi's scandalous accusation. Unlike other Uchihas, Shisui didn't brood.

"I don't brood." He informed Itachi, without turning to face him. "I'm just thinking."

"Regardless, you are brooding now. I think I've got enough experience with Uchihas to recognise the aura when one is brooding."

Shisui turned around to deny such preposterous claim, only to see Itachi leaning against a pillar, wearing his uniform without the mask, looking at Shisui intently. His face was perfectly blank as usual except a little furrow in between his eyebrows.

Huh.

He's really got it bad.

It took a moment for Shisui to restart his brain, before realising that he was gaping like an idiot, and promptly closed his mouth.

"Are you okay?" Itachi asked, genuinely concerned.

This brought Shisui back to his previous frustrations.

"I am having a bit of trouble with Naruto."

"What kind of trouble?"

"It's only been two weeks and he's got hurt so many times. I've tried to tell him to try safer pranks but he won't listen. He doesn't eat anything I cook other than ramen. He's clearly suffering from malnutrition. He can't read and it doesn't matter how much I try I haven't been able to get him to sit still for a hirangana lesson. I knew that taking of him would not be easy, but half the time I just don't know what to do."

"You're sixteen years old, Shisui. Nobody is expecting you to be a perfect parent in no time." Itachi tried to console him.

"Kushina-san would have known how to handle him." Shisui slumped further. "You're right. I guess I was brooding. I just... I don't know what to do."

"I'm always right." Itachi remarked. "He's testing you, Shisui."

"What do you mean?"

"He is normally not this... obnoxious. He's trying your limits, the point where you get tired of him and leave... like others did."

That definitely sounded something Naruto would do. Even with his easy acceptance, he always seemed somwhat wary of Shisui. He was an idiot to not realise this sooner.

"How do I get him to stop this?"

"Talk to him. Set some rules. Tell him how much you care for him without breaking Sandaime-sama's rules."

Shisui should really be taking notes. With how much Sasuke adored him, Itachi was really a pro at older-brothering. On the other hand, he should definitely delay him meeting Naruto. With his clear admiration of 'Karasu-nii', he was clearly affected by Itachi's older-brotherness. It would be really unfair if he started admiring Itachi more than Shisui. He really wanted a mini-me and Itachi wasn't going to steal him, no matter how hot he looked.


	6. Bullying

Itachi quietly observed as the clan members discussed the impact of Shisui's decision to leave the clan. The current plans were no longer valid as Shisui was a centre piece to the attack. Furthermore, the people who were previously on the fence regarding the coup were in opposition of it, since the Hokage had shown immense trust in the Uchiha by granting the custody of the jinchiruchi to one of them, despite him being required to leave the clan.

He left the meeting feeling much lighter. This was the first time since he had started spying on the Uchiha for the Sandaime, that he had good news to offer to the Hokage. That would have to wait though. As the meeting hadn't dragged in because of discussion of different attack strategies that were never going to be used, he still had time to pick up Sasuke from the Academy.

Itachi enjoyed the chatter of crowd around him as he walked towards the Academy. He didn't like travelling through the rooftops when not in a mission, unlike other shinobi. This was one of the few times that he could be just another face in the crowd.

He could hear a commotion as he neared the Academy building. He quickened his steps to see what was going on.

"... you're just a monster. Nobody cares about you." He could hear a childs voice. Front that, it wasn't hard to guess. what was going on.

Sure enough, Naruto-kun was standing there, surrounded by a group of children sneering at him, including Sasuke, Itachi noted with disappointment.

"That's not true. Shisui-nii cares about me." Naruto-kun shouted back defiantly.

It was Sasuke who came forward to squash that claim. "No, he doesn't. Shisui only with you because the Hokage asked him to. Why else would he care for someone as stupid as you?"

Itachi could see that Naruto-kun's brave facade was about to crack and decided that it was time for him to intervene.

"And how would you know that Sasuke?" He asked stepping closer to his brother.

Sasuke, at least, understood that what he was doing was wrong and looked down in shame when he saw Itachi's disappointed face. "Nii-san. We were just having fun.."

Itachi raised an eyebrow at that. "Really? Were you having fun Naruto-kun?" He asked, glancing at the boy. He had wiped his tears and was looking at Itachi with a scrutinizing expression. "And you didn't answer my question, Sasuke? How would you know how Shisui felt? When did you last meet him?"

"Everybody in the clan was saying so." Sasuke mumbled.

Itachi wanted to sigh. "That is called a rumour, Sasuke. A shinobi doesn't rely on rumors for information, because more often than not they are wrong. Do you understand?"

"Hai, nii-san." Sasuke answered, as the other children began to disperse, having understood that there wasn't going to be anymore bullying there.

Itachi turned to the young jinchiruchi. "And that goes for you too, Naruto-kun. Don't believe anything just because many people are saying so. Always confirm your information from the source." He said, ruffling the boys hair.

Naruto's eyes lit up in what could be recognition as he whispered (what could be considered whispering for Naruto) in delight, "Karasu-nii!"

Oh. Shisui wasn't going to like that.


	7. Family

All in all, Naruto had a great day. Sure it didn't start off great but he was saved from the idiots in his class by Sasuke- teme's brother while Sasuke-teme had been publically scolded by him.

He even got to know the real identity of Karasu-nii, even though he was Sasuke- teme's brother. He had to promise not to tell it to anyone because ANBU identities were supposed to be secret. He had swore on the Ramen God's that he would taken the secret to grave, dattebayo. But Karasu-nii had told him not to go that far.

He had also given Naruto a really good advice to talk to Shisui-nii. It made sense to talk to him directly rather than believe what everyone says. Shisui-nii had stayed even after all his pranks. That at least got him the benefit of doubt.

That was the reason Naruto ended up waiting for Shisui-nii to return from his mission, on the couch well past midnight.

He might have ended up dozing a little but was promptly woken up by Shisui-nii's noisy entrance.

"Naruto, what are you doing on the couch? It's 1 am. You have to go to the academy tomorrow."

"I was waiting for you. I wanted to talk about something." Naruto said, supressing a yawn.

"Alright. What's this about?" Shisui-nii joined him on the couch, yawning.

"Are you only my gaurdian because Hokage-jiji ordered you?" Naruto asked in a small voice.

"Of course not. Who told you that?" Shisui-nii didn't look sleepy anymore.

"Sasuke-teme, and others at the academy and people on the streets.."

"Don't listen to them. They don't know anything. They're either making assumptions or spreading rumours. Hokage-sama didn't order me to be your gaurdian. I asked him to let me take of you."

"Why?" Naruto whispered.

"Because you're my family. Don't ask more than that. I can't tell you the details, Hokage-sama's orders."

Naruto felt a warm feeling in his chest hearing that, and had to hold back tears. He wasn't alone. He had a family.

As much he wanted to know how they were related, Naruto understood the importance of promises. He had promised Karasu-nii to protect his identity just as Shisui-nii had promised jiji not to tell Naruto about their relation.

"Alright. I won't ask." He said.

"Great. Now, I hope you studied for your history test, tomorrow. Because, if you fail again, no matter how much you beg, you aren't getting ramen for a week."

Noooooo! Ramen!!!!


	8. Uchiha Naruto?

Uchiha Sasuke loved his brother very much and hated disappointing him and that was the only reason he was going to apologise to the dobe. It wasn't like he was feeling bad about making fun of an orphan, no matter how much his nii-san liked him. And didn't that sting,the class clown held more of his brother's attention than Sasuke did.

Even now the dobe was wailing about ramen, holding a his freshly returned history test with a failing grade.

"Naruto." He called out, approaching him, taking his brother's advice not call him dobe, at least during the apology.

"Teme." He sneered back, apparently still sore over yesterday's ribbing.

"I wish to apologise for what I did the other day." Sasuke managed to bite out.

"Did your brother make you say that?" Naruto shot back.

"What does that matter to you?" Sasuke managed to bite back the 'dobe'. He would like to honestly tell his brother that he did this properly.

"Yeah. Whatever." The dobe waived him off retuning to his ramen obsession. Sasuke was just about to consider the mission a success when Naruto called out, "Wait!"

"What is it?"

"You're an Uchiha right?"

"Obviously."

"If you want me to forgive you, you'd have to help me with something."

"I'm not helping you with your stupid pranks." Sasuke protested.

"As if I need any help with that." The dobe scoffed. "I need you to help me figure out if I'm an Uchiha."

Sasuke waited for the punchline but Naruto just sat there looking at him with a serious face.

"That was a joke, right?"

"No. Shisui-nii told me yesterday that he asked Hokage-jiji to let him take care of me because we're family. And that he couldn't say anymore because he was ordered not to. But nothing is stopping me from finding it out myself, dattebayo." Naruto raised his fist.

Sasuke was trying to digest the possibility of Naruto being an Uchiha when the pink hair girl that followed him everywhere, Saku-something, piped up from beside them, "Actually, you could get in trouble if the information is classified."

"But, Sakura-chan, how can it be classified from me, if it's about me?" Naruto wailed.

"First of all, stop talking that loudly." Sasuke snapped. "If it's really classified information, you could get Shisui into trouble. Secondly, there's no way you could be an Uchiha."

"Why not? Shisui-nii is an Uchiha. If he's my family then I must be one too."

"But..."

"There must be a way to get proof either way." Sakura interupted.

Sasuke was just about to tell her to stop interfering, when a sinister idea came to his mind. "There is. All Uchiha, even ones with diluted blood, especially the strong ones, have the potential to develop Sharingan."

"Shari- what?"

"TheSharingan is thedojutsu of Uchiha clan that appears selectively among its members. It grants the wielder two broad abilities: the Eye of Insight and the Eye of Hypnotism." Pinky recited.

"Yes, it develops when a ninja with Uchiha blood experiences great distress, like being in a dangerous situation." Sasuke informed further.

"How will that prove whether I'm an Uchiha or not?" Naruto spoke in his usual volume.

"There's an training area for high level ninjas. It's called Forest of Death. You are bound to experience a dangerous situation there. If you you develop the Sharingan, it would prove that you are an Uchiha."

"Really? Yatta!! I'll go there right now. Do you know where it is?" The idiot crowed.

"Of course." Sasuke answered with a smirk.


	9. Forest of Death

Sakura watched as Naruto ran away from the academy, excited about finally having proof that he had a family. She had meant to stop him but she was a bit shocked to see that Sasuke-kun could be so cruel, Naruto had disappeared before she could say anything.

"The Forest of Death is filled with dangerous chakra animals. He could get really hurt there." She tried to get him to understand.

"That's the point." Sasuke-kun muttered.

"So, you're okay for him to get killed just because your brother scolded you for bullying him for being an orphan?" She whisper-shouted at him, and was thankful to see a bit of guilt in his eyes.

"What are you going to do about it?" He snapped defensively.

"If you don't come with me right now to stop him from entering that training ground, I will report you to the Hokage for sabotaging a fellow shinobi." She couldn't believe she was threatening Sasuke-kun.

"Fine." He sighed. "If we hurry, we might catch him before he enters the forest."

Turns out that Sakura really needed to work on her stamina, she realised as they reached the entrance to the infernal training ground. Naruto was nowhere in sight, which meant he had entered the forest, and Sakura couldn't help but think that it was because of her slowing down Sasuke-kun that they didn't make it in time.

They glanced at one another before silently agreeing to enter the forest. It would be fine, Sakura told herself, this was just the outskirts of the forest, they would get Naruto and hightail out of there.

Sakura's carefully constructed calm was broken by a high pitched scream from somewhere near them.

"That's the dobe. Let's go." Sasuke-kun said, running towards the source of the voice.

Sakura followed him, only to find a clearing completely overun by giant spider and Naruto trapped in a web. Sakira only watched as Sasuke-kun rushed to help him out but soon he was trapped too.

This was it then. Even Sasuke-kun couldn't defeat thise monsters. Sakura didn't have any chance at all, she thought, as she saw one of the spiders advance towards her. They were going to die getting eaten alive by giant spiders in the forest of death. Sakura had never been mire terrified in her life. She was simultaneously shaking like a life and frozen in fear.

As soon as Sakura resigned herself to a painful death, she heard the chirping of a thousand birds amongst the foliage, which was followed by the appearance of an ANBU with a dog mask and hand alight with lightening.

It only took a second for him to slaughter those spiders and free both of her idiotic classmates. Sakura was so thankful to be saved she even forgot to vomit at the sight of spider inards.

She turned to look if Naruto and Sasuke-kun were alright only to come face to face with two pairs of red eyes.

Judging by the shocked look on Sasuke-kun's face as he observed Naruto's slightly different red eyes, it looked like Naruto was an Uchiha after all.


	10. A Misconception

Sarutobi Hiruzen was having a good day. His advisors hadn't come to his office to berate him for his most recent decisions, the civilian council resolved their differences after only one hour of meaningless shouting, Naruto hadn't pranked anyone; it felt like he would have time to go home early and spend time with his toddler grandson before his bedtime.

He happily signed a barely legible mission report written by one of his shinobi, when Hound entered his office through the window carrying Naruto. Behind him the other two members of his team came in carrying Fugaku's younger son and a pink haired girl.

Hiruzen set down his pen and lit his pipe, berating himself for counting his eggs before they hatched.

"What did you do, Naruto?" All three children were covered in scrapes and minor cuts, and Naruto did sport a guilty look on his face.

"Nothing." He yelled. "I just went to a training ground to get some training."

Behind him Hound cleared his throat meaningfully.

"Hokage-sama, if I may." The pink haired girl began. "My name is Haruno Sakura. I and Sasuke-kun went into the Forest of Death with Naruto-kun to activate his Sharingan because he wanted proof that he was an Uchiha."

The Hokage blinked at that.

"That's ridiculous. You're not an Uchiha, Naruto."

Even as Naruto's face fell at that, Sakura protested. "But he is Hokage-sama. He activated his Sharingan, so did Sasuke-kun. Only Naruto's looks a bit different, like a cat's eyes rather than a wheel, but that could be because of his Uzumaki parent."

Naruto looked surprised at that, while Sasuke nodded, looking a bit wide eyed. It was painful to watch hope bloom in the blonde's face.

Hiruzen wanted to hit his head. He knew allowing Shisui to be Naruto's gaurdian would come back and bite him in the ass one day.

He had made the mistake of dismissing the matter from his mind after the decision had shown positive results of decreasing the tensions between the Uchiha and the village; with the Uchiha being honoured that one of their own was trusted to take care of the jinchuriki and the civilians believing that the Uchiha wouldn't have been trusted with Naruto if they were really responsible for the attack seven years ago. It was an unexpected benifit he had not foreseen when signed the gaurdianship papers.

Naruto using the Kyuubi's chakra and his classmates mistaking it for a Sharingan, however, was not something he could have thought of in his wildest dreams.

For a moment he toyed with the idea to keep letting them believe it before dismissing it. It would soon become obvious that Naruto doesn't have the Uchiha doijutsu, when he won't be able to use any of its abilities.

"Naruto-kun doesn't have the Sharingan. His eyes turning red was due to something he inherited from his mother, who was not an Uchiha." He gravelly informed the children. "This is an S rank secret and you aren't allowed to speak of it to anyone. Do you understand?"

All three of the children nodded rapidly.

"Jiji. Could you telling me about my mother?" Naruto asked, looking subdued. Getting his hopes up and having them fall had taken a toll on the boy's usual demeanor.

"Not now, Naruto-kun. Perhaps when you are a chunnin." He promised, knowing that the day was far away.

Naruto, instead of being discouraged, looked determined. "Just you wait, old man. I'll be a chunnin in no time. And then I'll be Hokage. You just keep that seat warm for me."

While Sakura and Sasuke looked shocked at the lack of respect Naruto showed him, Hiruzen just chuckled.


End file.
